Four paintings by the Renaissance master Antonello da Messina have been stolen from a museum in Sicily. Thieves broke into the Museo Regionale di Messina on the evening of 15 August – a national holiday in Italy – taking three of the five surviving panels from an altarpiece known as the Polyptych of San Gregorio and a double-sided panel of the Madonna with Child. They are the only works by the 15th-century master to have remained his native city. Marisa Mercurio, director of the museum, described the theft to the Guardian as a loss ‘not only for Messina but for Sicily as a whole’. The speed and organisation of the heist, which took only two or three minutes, has raised suspicions of possible Mafia involvement, but the investigation continues.
The painter Mary Heilmann, best known for her brightly coloured abstract works, has died at the age of 86. Born in San Francisco, Heilmann first studied literature with a plan to become a teacher before beginning a masters in ceramics and sculpture at UC Berkeley. But by the late 1960s – then living in New York and struggling to make it as a sculptor – she switched to painting, producing Color Field-style work in which blocks of vivid colour were sectioned by grid lines drawn with her finger. Heilmann’s career took off in the 1990s after Hauser & Wirth began representing her, with the artist exhibiting at institutions such as Dia Beacon, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Whitechapel Gallery.
A Swedish-American couple is suing Alison Jacques gallery for breach of contract after the gallery cancelled the sale of three paintings by Swedish artist Monica Sjöö, whose estate it represents. The Art Newspaper reports that Yoed and Natasha Anise, who run a tech company, bought the paintings for £264,000 in October 2023. However, Sjöö’s estate rescinded the sale after remarks allegedly made by Natasha Anise about the extent of the couple’s collecting at a dinner for the opening of an exhibition of Sjöö’s work at Modern Art Oxford. The Anises are asking for a full refund (including the discount they received on the three paintings), plus their art adviser’s commission, their travel expenses to the UK and damages. Alison Jacques has filed a counterclaim disputing the Anises’ account and stating that the estate had offered to honour the contract and release the works or to give the couple a full refund with interest. The case is due to be heard in Central London County Court in March 2027.
Courtney Johnston is stepping down as CEO of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarea. In a statement announcing her departure, the chair of Te Papa’s board, Christopher Swasbrook, said that Johnston ‘leaves the museum well positioned for its next period of growth’. Her replacement has yet to be announced.
Brett Littman will be the next director and chief executive of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Currently director of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum in New York, he takes up his new post in early October.
